am i aiming too high

i know this is a question that is asked repeatedly and i am sorry!! however i can’t shake off the anxiety i feel due to the grades i achieved at gcses. my mental health deteriorated rapidly after covid and i ended up dropping out of school during y10 & joined back october of year 11. i was lucky enough to achieve 88777665 despite my circumstances (8’s&7’s all in essay subjects and 6 in stem, the 5 was in art) however a few people told me i was aiming too high with my university choices because of my gcses whereas others said it does not matter whatsoever. my predicteds are AAA (could raise this to A*AA by the time i apply) and i’m aiming to apply to UCL, Leeds, Manchester & York (5th is undecided) for international relations. once again i apologise for asking a question that is asked repeatedly but i am stressing unfortunately.

i know this is a question that is asked repeatedly and i am sorry!! however i can’t shake off the anxiety i feel due to the grades i achieved at gcses. my mental health deteriorated rapidly after covid and i ended up dropping out of school during y10 & joined back october of year 11. i was lucky enough to achieve 88777665 despite my circumstances (8’s&7’s all in essay subjects and 6 in stem, the 5 was in art) however a few people told me i was aiming too high with my university choices because of my gcses whereas others said it does not matter whatsoever. my predicteds are AAA (could raise this to A*AA by the time i apply) and i’m aiming to apply to UCL, Leeds, Manchester & York (5th is undecided) for international relations. once again i apologise for asking a question that is asked repeatedly but i am stressing unfortunately.

I don't think you are aiming to high, you are predicted good results and your GCSEs are by no means a poor set of GCSEs, they are quite strong. I wouldn't worry about it and try to do well and write a good personal statement, plus you'll be able to mention extenuating circumstances (not in your personal statement though).

GCSEs irrelevant in this case for those unis, to my knowledge. Really for IR it'd only matter for LSE (where IR is incredibly competitive anyway) or Oxford (where politics and IR subjects are only available in joint degrees anyway) as far as I'm aware. Don't know of any other unis offering IR where I'd expect GCSEs to be formally scored? Maybe KCL as they like to be awkward for the sake of it sometimes...

The main thing will be ensuring your predicted grades are aligned with the standard offers of the courses you're applying to.

If you can get your predicted grades raised to A*AA then you may want to consider HSPS at Cambridge, although it may be a slightly longer shot based on the information provided on their admissions pages now (it seems to have become more popular in the last few years perhaps).

honestly, think considering that you had a whole year off and managed to come back in year 11 with top grades, i completely think that you are capable of so much!! genuinely, and please take my word with this, there is no such things as aiming too high, please please dont limit yourself to your abilities because youre doing so great!! and also triple As are enough to get into almost any university, if not all of them, so i wouldnt stress, especially if you are consitently getting high grades. also typically, unis care more about your a-level grades than your gcses but im sure that they will consider and let things slide considering you did have a whole year off!

i know this is a question that is asked repeatedly and i am sorry!! however i can’t shake off the anxiety i feel due to the grades i achieved at gcses. my mental health deteriorated rapidly after covid and i ended up dropping out of school during y10 & joined back october of year 11. i was lucky enough to achieve 88777665 despite my circumstances (8’s&7’s all in essay subjects and 6 in stem, the 5 was in art) however a few people told me i was aiming too high with my university choices because of my gcses whereas others said it does not matter whatsoever. my predicteds are AAA (could raise this to A*AA by the time i apply) and i’m aiming to apply to UCL, Leeds, Manchester & York (5th is undecided) for international relations. once again i apologise for asking a question that is asked repeatedly but i am stressing unfortunately.